As I was going through old notes on Servant Leadership and reading up on where the term Servant Leadership came from, it suddenly hit me:
You can not be a true leader unless you are a servant leader!
Yes you heard me right!
Since Leadership is based on 5 best practices, if you look at these closely you need to admit it!
5 leadership practices, based on the book “The leadership challenge” by James M. Kouzes & Barry z. Posner, which again is based on actual research in the last 40 years or so, are:
- Model the way – yes you have to walk the walk
- Inspire a shared vision – unless you talk with your team about their vision and the company vision and how their own vision can be aligned with the greater vision of the team or company
- Challenge the Process – yes even your own developed processes – that does not mean you change them all the time, but check if they are still applicable and still the best way to do things
- Enable others to act – how else will you get the best out of them? But this means stepping back and becoming a servant leader. Allowing them to learn and to fail at times.
- Encourage the heart – again, how else will you get the best out of your team, unless you encourage and praise them? Again only a servant leader can truly do this. You need to acknowledge even smallest achievements to get them to perform better and better.
To achieve those 5 best practices, you need to be a humble leader, not the boisterous politician, who always wants to be seen up front and the one who initiated all the successes.
Look at the leaders you really admire, you will realize that these are more likely servant leaders, who humbly did their work, often in the background. Look at Mother Theresa for example. Yet they achieved so much by enabling and encouraging others. If you look closely they will have modeled the way, inspired a shared vision and challenged the process along the way.
As a project manager, you do not need to have a big title and be in Senior Management to be a change maker, who leads others to do the right thing. But be being a man (or woman, for that matter) of your work, walking the talk and modelling the way, you will influence others. By being passionate about what you do and talking about the greater picture, the vision, you will inspire others.
Now what is a servant leader?
Someone, who inspires others and enables them to become their very best. Then he happily steps back and watches them to become their very best and takes pride in having helped them. He humbly allows them to make mistakes, even though it may fall back on him.